1. Field
Aspects of the present invention generally relate to a printing apparatus, a printing method, and a storage medium, for printing an image on a sheet.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, printing apparatuses print images on sheets, and then discharge the sheets (printed sheets) outside the printing apparatuses after printing. Further, in recent years, there has been proposed a mechanism for temporarily keeping a printed sheet inside an apparatus, without immediately discharging the printed sheet to outside of the apparatus after printing.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2013-220905 discusses a printing apparatus that includes a plurality of sheet storage units therein, and temporarily stores a printed sheet in any one of the plurality of sheet storage units. This printing apparatus has a function of authenticating a user, so that, among printed sheets stored in the plurality of sheet storage units, a printed sheet corresponding to an authenticated user is conveyed to be partially exposed outside the printing apparatus. The user then can pull out the partially exposed printed sheet, to receive the user's own printed sheet.
With such a configuration, working efficiency can be improved by starting printing before the user arrives at a setup location of the printing apparatus, while preventing leakage of confidential information that occurs if the printed sheet is seen by other people.
There is an upper limit to the number of sheets storable in each of the sheet storage units provided in such a printing apparatus. Therefore, when a print job including more than one page is executed, the sheet storage unit may become full in the middle of executing the job. In addition, the size of a sheet storable in the sheet storage unit may be limited more than the size of a sheet printable by the printing apparatus, due to the structure of the sheet storage unit or the structure of a sheet-conveying path to the sheet storage unit.
According to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2013-220905, the printing apparatus includes, separately from the plurality of sheet storage units provided inside the printing apparatus, a configuration for immediately discharging a printed sheet outside the printing apparatus (without requiring user authentication). However, if a printed sheet that cannot be stored in the sheet storage unit is immediately discharged outside the printing apparatus, the discharged printed sheet can be seen by other people and therefore, there is a risk of confidential information leakage.